D&D 5E CoS: My players defeated Fate

[Saeviomagy]

I always like the series of Angel where the gang were given control of the LA Wolfram and Hart offices.

To that end, have the room contain a representative of the dark powers, willing to make a deal: they can end the torment of every mortal in Barovia except Strahd if they take up managerial positions running some of the domains of Dread (Possibly including Barovia). Strahd still has his punishment to face, but the other real people in the domain have no real reason to be there.

 

[Irda Ranger]

As it stands, unless Eva's card reading says that's Strahd's "always there" location... there's little reason why the PCs would ever go down to his crypt. If you can kill him outright anywhere and everywhere just because you have the Sunsword and/or Holy Symbol as per written... you're almost never going to need to. Especially depending on the size of the party, you'll knock him down to 0 HP rather quickly and then 'poof!' threat gone. Which I personally find to be 'Meh!'

Man, I wish I'd realized this too. Oh well. My PCs are determined to rescue St Markovia's remains anyway so they'll go.

I've decided to go with Strahd-Wraith is at the location. Then when they defeat him what's left is a vestige and Injaira (pretending to be Death) comes to collect it and add to the Amber Temple's collection.

I'm using "size large Ultraloth with Scythe + Legendary Actions" for stats. But they won't fight him here. He'll just laugh evilly, turn invisible and teleport away at the first hint of trouble.


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[tglassy]

The book says Strahd is always looking for someone to replace him. In that room is a dark avatar, a point of darkness like a black hole. When the PC's enter, it greets them. One of them must take Strahd's place, and be damned forever as the Lord of Ravenloft.

It could wind up self sacrificing, where no one wants it but one steps up to become the new Strahd for the good of the group. Or you could wind up with more than one PC wanting it, thus they have to fight to the death. Or, one could say "Ok" while the others say "No way", and thus start another fight to the death.

Either way, you're making it clear this is the end of the game. Whatever happens here is what happens. If it were me, I'd make it so there was no other way out of Barovia, or even Castle Ravenloft at all. Either one of them takes Strahd's place, or they never leave.

Or, if they haven't been the Amber temple yet, one of the Vestiges at the Temple (spoiler) gives info on how to become a full vampire. In order to take Strahd's place, one of them must do that, becoming the new line for the quest. One of them must become a Vampire and claim Strahd's throne.

 

[Cap'n Kobold]

I do that too, only I also read the adventure and played Strahd appropriately. He isn't a zombie.

How would you have handled Strahd's response to Irda's player's actions?

 

[HawaiiSteveO]

I used Sly Flourish's Ancient One as I thought Strahd presented in book was way too weak.

http://slyflourish.com/sly_flourishs_vampires.html

It was more or less a draw, 2 PC's killed one incapacitated, Strahd fled and let the surviving PC's leave his domain. He'll be back!

To truly play hit & run tactics etc over and over again would have turned into a grind, sooner or later there had to be a reckoning. After 9 months of playing CoS it was time to wrap things up.

 

[Irda Ranger]

Well that went quite well! This is a Play Report, if that sort of thing bores you.

So I made a few more changes. I was bumping up Injaira with angelic weapons and trying to boost his CR, and it occurred to me, why not just make him a fallen Planetar? There's really nothing in the Curse of Strahd text that's tied to Yugoloths. His being an Arcanloth was pretty random anyway. (And I'd also previously changed the Abbot to being a Drow warlock of Lloth using Mask of Many Faces to appear human, so the fallen angel trope hadn't been used yet)

I also decided to make Strahd just a plain vanilla wraith (the only extra I gave him was Regen 10/turn when not in sunlight). Yeah that's only CR 5-6, but that's sort of the point. He was mostly defeated already and his wraith form was a pale shadow of the form and power he'd had previously.

So the PCs show up in the treasury tower (that's where the card reading sent them), and Strahd was there floating around in the rafters and looking out the windows. He taunted them a bit saying that he'd eventually regain his physical form, then hunt them down one by one and kill everyone they ever loved. That sort of thing. But he didn't attack them and was sort of talkative, because he knew he was CR 5 now and couldn't take them all on together. And to be honest the PCs kind of sensed this and were like "Whatever, dude. Why are you so pathetic?" But they also asked him some questions about Tatyana and got some RP out of it.

But Strahd eventually got tired of their insolence and not taking him seriously, and said "Yeah, you're hot shizzle, but you can't protect everyone." He then used his incorporeal ability to leave the tower and went to the master bedroom where he killed Gertrude and turned her into a specter. The PCs heard her death scream from down the hall and realized "Oh crap, Strahd's going to keep killing people until we do something."

So then a chase commenced, but Strahd lead them around by the nose because he was incorporeal and could ghost through walls and floors and the ceiling. The PCs got sloppy and got separated trying to corner him, and Strahd caught the cleric and the rogue alone and by surprise, without their paladin, ranger, or arcane knight to defend them.

Now I'm trying to play Strahd smart, and he knows the castle like the back of his hand. He knows how far away the warrior PCs are and estimated he had two rounds to kill the cleric and then ghost through the floors again. So he gets off his surprise round attack, takes a hit from the cleric and rogue, and his plan for round 2 was to finish off the cleric and then ghost into the floor. And it would have worked too! I pre-rolled a natural 20 for his next attack and he would have dropped the cleric to zero with life drain. Instant death if he failed the Con save.

But the other PCs were good. The sorcerer twin-spell Hasted the Arcane Knight and Ranger, and they used class abilities to make three move actions at base speed 60 and closed the distance in one round, then got off a full round of attacks. They rolled crits and did over 100 HP of damage in that round. Boom. Strahd's dusted, again.

But Strahd still doesn't fully die. He shrivels up into a vestige evil, like the other vestiges at the Amber Temple.

Then Injaira just appears, an angel in a black cloak with a flaming sword. And he's like BEHOLD! I AM DEATH! I HAVE COME TO COLLECT THE VESTIGE OF STRAHD VON ZAROVICH.

The paladin does divine sense and is like "Yup. He's a celestial. Please take this vestige away, Mr Angel of Death."

The cleric rolled Insight 23 to try to determine if the angel was lying, but I rolled 25 on Injaira's Deception check. So the cleric was convinced too and they let him take Strahd's vestige and Injaira disappeared.

And they were PSYCHED. They were like "Woo hoo! Strahd's truly dead! The angel of death himself came and took him away!" High-fives all around.

Now the players are clearing the rooms of the castle they hadn't been to yet, and they just found the evil spellbook of the witches in the southern tower, and I added an inscription to the title page: All praise and glory to our patron Injaira the Fallen and his eternal champion Strahd Von Zarovich!

And they're like "Wait, who's Injaira?"

So that's where we are now. I've decided that Strahd's vestige has gotten added to the collection in the Amber Temple, and his existence is truly over. His curse will be lifted from Barovia once the PCs take Ireena to the sacred pool in Krezk. But Injaira and the Dark Powers continue, and it'll be up to the players on whether to leave Barovia or to follow up on these clues I've dropped.

 

[MechaTarrasque]

Well that went quite well! This is a Play Report, if that sort of thing bores you.

So I made a few more changes. I was bumping up Injaira with angelic weapons and trying to boost his CR, and it occurred to me, why not just make him a fallen Planetar? There's really nothing in the Curse of Strahd text that's tied to Yugoloths. His being an Arcanloth was pretty random anyway. (And I'd also previously changed the Abbot to being a Drow warlock of Lloth using Mask of Many Faces to appear human, so the fallen angel trope hadn't been used yet)

I also decided to make Strahd just a plain vanilla wraith (the only extra I gave him was Regen 10/turn when not in sunlight). Yeah that's only CR 5-6, but that's sort of the point. He was mostly defeated already and his wraith form was a pale shadow of the form and power he'd had previously.

So the PCs show up in the treasury tower (that's where the card reading sent them), and Strahd was there floating around in the rafters and looking out the windows. He taunted them a bit saying that he'd eventually regain his physical form, then hunt them down one by one and kill everyone they ever loved. That sort of thing. But he didn't attack them and was sort of talkative, because he knew he was CR 5 now and couldn't take them all on together. And to be honest the PCs kind of sensed this and were like "Whatever, dude. Why are you so pathetic?" But they also asked him some questions about Tatyana and got some RP out of it.

But Strahd eventually got tired of their insolence and not taking him seriously, and said "Yeah, you're hot shizzle, but you can't protect everyone." He then used his incorporeal ability to leave the tower and went to the master bedroom where he killed Gertrude and turned her into a specter. The PCs heard her death scream from down the hall and realized "Oh crap, Strahd's going to keep killing people until we do something."

So then a chase commenced, but Strahd lead them around by the nose because he was incorporeal and could ghost through walls and floors and the ceiling. The PCs got sloppy and got separated trying to corner him, and Strahd caught the cleric and the rogue alone and by surprise, without their paladin, ranger, or arcane knight to defend them.

Now I'm trying to play Strahd smart, and he knows the castle like the back of his hand. He knows how far away the warrior PCs are and estimated he had two rounds to kill the cleric and then ghost through the floors again. So he gets off his surprise round attack, takes a hit from the cleric and rogue, and his plan for round 2 was to finish off the cleric and then ghost into the floor. And it would have worked too! I pre-rolled a natural 20 for his next attack and he would have dropped the cleric to zero with life drain. Instant death if he failed the Con save.

But the other PCs were good. The sorcerer twin-spell Hasted the Arcane Knight and Ranger, and they used class abilities to make three move actions at base speed 60 and closed the distance in one round, then got off a full round of attacks. They rolled crits and did over 100 HP of damage in that round. Boom. Strahd's dusted, again.

But Strahd still doesn't fully die. He shrivels up into a vestige evil, like the other vestiges at the Amber Temple.

Then Injaira just appears, an angel in a black cloak with a flaming sword. And he's like BEHOLD! I AM DEATH! I HAVE COME TO COLLECT THE VESTIGE OF STRAHD VON ZAROVICH.

The paladin does divine sense and is like "Yup. He's a celestial. Please take this vestige away, Mr Angel of Death."

The cleric rolled Insight 23 to try to determine if the angel was lying, but I rolled 25 on Injaira's Deception check. So the cleric was convinced too and they let him take Strahd's vestige and Injaira disappeared.

And they were PSYCHED. They were like "Woo hoo! Strahd's truly dead! The angel of death himself came and took him away!" High-fives all around.

Now the players are clearing the rooms of the castle they hadn't been to yet, and they just found the evil spellbook of the witches in the southern tower, and I added an inscription to the title page: All praise and glory to our patron Injaira the Fallen and his eternal champion Strahd Von Zarovich!

And they're like "Wait, who's Injaira?"

So that's where we are now. I've decided that Strahd's vestige has gotten added to the collection in the Amber Temple, and his existence is truly over. His curse will be lifted from Barovia once the PCs take Ireena to the sacred pool in Krezk. But Injaira and the Dark Powers continue, and it'll be up to the players on whether to leave Barovia or to follow up on these clues I've dropped.

Very nice.